Shorts (left)

By —Katie Thomas and Joe Drape, The New York Times Michael Barbaro and Marjorie Connelly, The New York Times —Campbell Robertson, The New York TimesSep. 3, 2010

Directors’ Cup goes to Stanford, as usual

Stanford’s football team does not make it to many premier bowl games, but the Cardinal rules college sports by another influential measure: it has won the Directors’ Cup 16 years in a row.

The university has long been the envy of other college sports programs for its generous athletic endowment, which was valued at $500 million before the economic recession, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Stanford has so dominated the annual all-sports competition that organizers have adjusted the scoring system several times in an attempt to even the field.

It is one of a handful of universities that field more than 30 teams, which gives it a significant edge. The Directors’ Cup measures the performances of a university’s best 10 women’s and best 10 men’s teams, but many Division I programs do not even field 20 sports. Stanford has 35.

Majority of New Yorkers want Muslim center moved, poll finds

NEW YORK — Two-thirds of New York City residents want a planned Muslim community center and mosque to be relocated to a less controversial site farther from ground zero in Lower Manhattan, including many who say they favor the project, according to a New York Times poll.

The poll indicates that support for the 13-story complex, which organizers said would promote moderate Islam and interfaith dialogue, is tepid in its home town.

Nearly nine years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks ignited a wave of anxiety about Muslims, many in the country’s biggest and arguably most cosmopolitan city still have an uneasy relationship with Islam. One-fifth of New Yorkers acknowledged animosity toward Muslims. Thirty-three percent said that compared with other U.S. citizens, Muslims were more sympathetic to terrorists. And nearly 60 percent said their friends had negative feelings toward Muslims because of 9/11.

Gulf rig fire causes anxiety but no oil spills

NEW ORLEANS — An oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico caught fire Thursday morning, forcing its 13 crew members overboard and sending waves of anxiety along a coast that has just begun to recover from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

By early evening, the workers had been rescued with no serious injuries reported and the fire had been put out. Coast Guard officials said no oil could be seen on the water near the platform, contradicting an earlier report.

In another year, the mishap may not have garnered much attention and been seen as one of the scores of fires and explosions that occur on offshore platforms in the gulf every year. But coming so soon after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in April, which killed 11 workers and set off the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history, it took on much larger significance.